“Good.” Mark felt a monogram of satisfaction.
“I sent you to North Conway to keep an eye on my partner. That task remains of the utmost importance.”
“It’s at the top of my to-do list,” Mark spat, “just as soon as you get me the hell out of this prison.”
The boss smiled. “Unfortunately, that won’t be possible, as you’ve been relieved of your duties, Mr. Becker.”
“What?”
“I’ll be getting someone else to pick up the slack. You’ll be staying right where you are.”
“You son of a bitch. You son of a bitch!” Mark shook the cell bars so hard he was surprised they didn’t break. But he remained where he was—in his cage. “What are you planning to do? Leave me in prison for the rest of my life?”
The boss didn’t answer. Then, replying after a moment of silence, he said, “You’ll be released when the time is right.” He turned and disappeared up the stairs.
* * * *
As she slipped out the passenger side of her mother’s car, Abigail was surprised to see that someone was coming toward her. She couldn’t make out the person’s face, but it was a man and he was tall. She was still a little out of it, but also it was a very dark evening. She was going to use that as her excuse as to why she didn’t yet feel as though all her senses were working up to par.
After the longest few days of her life, she had finally been released from the hospital. It wasn’t just the fact that she’d been knocked unconscious—she’d had several bruises and scratches that she didn’t even remember getting. The doctor had advised her to stay in the hospital for a full three days. Low and behold, the first place she’d wanted to go upon checking out was the Washington Valley Hotel.
Abigail hadn’t really expected to see anyone else this late at night. Thinking it might be Ryan making his way toward her, she ran her fingers through her tangled mess of hair. But as she got a glimpse of the man’s fancy jacket, she realized it was Alec.
“Hey, Abigail,” he said. “I didn’t realize you’d been released from the hospital. How are you feeling?”
“A little better,” she answered.
“And what are you doing out of bed?” With that debonair smile that had caused her to give him a second look that night at Valley Tavern, Alec inclined his head to her eye-level. “I may not have my doctorate yet, but I can tell you that concussions are very serious business.”
“I didn’t have a concussion,” Abigail explained. Not wanting to relive the horrible experience of having her neck struck, she diverted the subject by saying, “I’m not here to work yet, so don’t worry. I only came by to pick up my paycheck.”
“Is that right? I intend to let my father know that those jackasses running his hotel have apparently never heard of a stamp.”
Cheeks flushing, Abigail replied, “That isn’t necessary. Really, I wanted to stretch my legs.”
“Even so…”
“It’s not a big deal. Anyway, what brings you by so late?”
Taking his time in answering, Alec slipped his hands into his pockets. As he did so, the front of his jacket opened, revealing the T-shirt and jeans he was wearing. The clothes would have been typical for Abigail’s own circle of friends but not for this wealthy heir who never seemed to walk around in anything less than a tie.
“Signing checks for my father.” Alec cleared his throat. “Apparently these drones have never heard of a FedEx envelope either.”
Abigail laughed. “Hey, I’m one of those drones. I may be a little off my game but I’ll be back to it soon enough. So you’d just better watch yourself.” She gave his shoulder a light punch.
“Ooo—watch out Washington Valley Hotel Staff. Abigail MacKenzie is back with a vengeance.” Alec flashed his perfect white smile. As he did so, something slipped out of his pocket.
Abigail bent down. She went for the object and her eyes locked with his Alec’s. Her hand locked around something—a card. Alec took a gigantic step back.
As Abigail turned the card over, her heart thudded in her chest. The card was white, and it looked just like the card she’d found by the front desk. The one that had the symbol from the ledger.
“Thanks,” Alec said, taking the card from her hand.
“Sure,” Abigail replied, her mind spinning with possibilities.
“Alec—”
“Abigail—”
“Sorry.” Abigail bit back a smile. “You first.”
“No, ladies first.”
“Really, it’s fine. Please, tell me what you were about to say.”
“All right, then. I would really like”—Alec cleared his throat—“to apologize for my presumptiveness that night at Valley Tavern. I mean, I find you attractive of course—you’re a very beautiful woman. But I shouldn’t have pushed you the way I did. It was presumptuous, and I feel very badly about it.”
“Apology accepted,” Abigail said. “And no hard feelings. We were all a little crazy that night. There’s more than enough blame to go around.”
The question she’d been working her nerve up to ask Alec slipped from her mind as the front door to the hotel came open. The porch lit up, and it illuminated Ryan and Kimberly as they stepped outside. Kim wasn’t wearing her hotel uniform, but instead a short, pink cocktail dress. Looking very much like they were headed out on a date, the two of them walked to the back of the parking lot.
Ryan turned toward Kimberly as they got beside her car. He smiled and leaned in, wrapping his arms around her. Unable to keep watching, Abigail turned away.
“You know”—Alec placed a hand on her shoulder—“neither Ryan nor I is particularly adept when it comes to understanding women. But trust me when I say that my friend is absolutely crazy about you.”
“He’s got a funny way of showing it,” Abigail muttered. She watched as Alec scanned Kimberly’s curvaceous figure. Rolling her eyes, she started back to her mother’s car.
“Abigail, wait a minute.” When he’d caught up to her, Alec said, “Ryan is my best friend, but I shouldn’t talk about us as though we’re one in the same. Ryan is much more self-driven than I am, and though he might not always understand what it is you’re thinking at any particular moment, he’s the sort of man who would move heaven and earth to protect the people he loves.”
“I know about his sister,” Abigail explained. “I know about the accident, and how she died so tragically, with practically her whole life in front of her.”
“You should also know that Ryan holds himself responsible. He believes if he hadn’t been pushing her so hard about not going out that night, Rachel would still be alive.”
“Oh.” That was certainly something he’d left out. So Ryan felt powerless, just like she did about her Dad. Perhaps he believed if he got close to anyone, they’d be ripped from his life the way Rachel was. The idea stopped Abigail dead in her tracks.
She watched as Ryan made his way back through the parking lot. Apparently he and Kim weren’t going on a date after all, but the realization didn’t make her feel all that much better. Failing to notice her and Alec in the dark parking lot, Ryan went inside and shut the door behind him.
“I guess it doesn’t really surprise me that Ryan blames himself,” Abigail said. “He’s constantly getting on his own case, and most days it takes a good deal effort to get him to say anything at all.”
Alec seemed to understand that. He nodded and said, “At the risk of comparing the two of us again, you should know that men in general aren’t very comfortable talking about their feelings.”
That was the understatement of the year. Though, discussing feelings wasn’t exactly easy for anyone. After her father died, Abigail hadn’t wanted to be around anybody. If not for her mom and her brothers, she never would have gotten through that time. But eventually, she had found a best friend in Julia as Ryan had in Alec.
It wasn’t that Ryan refused to open up. It was that he refused to open himself up to her.
“You know, my head is actually hurti
ng a bit,” she said.
“You ought to go back to the hospital. Your mother can drive you, or I’ll take you in my car and she can follow.”
“No, that’s all right. I just need to rest. I’ll pick up my paycheck next week, when I’m feeling better.”
After making her case to Alec, Abigail said a quick goodnight and then got back into the car. She told her mom she’d realized there was no one working who could print the check for her and she was going to ask them to mail it to her instead. Putting her head—which wasn’t hurting a bit—back against the passenger seat, she shut her tired eyes.
Thinking back on the last several minutes, Abigail decided that Alec was a better friend to Ryan than she had ever realized. But unfortunately for her sake, Ryan Newberry still had a lot to learn.
Chapter 32
“Can I help the next guest?” Abigail called out, surprised when no one in the lobby jumped at the chance. There were several groups of people standing around, but all were chatting with their travel companions. None, apparently, were in any great hurry to get checked in.
After three weeks on the couch, she was feeling much more energetic and she’d been anxious to get back to work. Of course, in addition to checking people in and out there, was plenty to do. The hotel had yet to find official replacements for Mark and Shane. The regional manager had sent someone in from one of the other hotels to assist, but Mr. Giles was only there temporarily, meaning the rest of the staff was picking up the slack. Still, they were forcing Abigail to take it easy, which simply wasn’t in her nature. Boring as some of the tasks were, she’d really come to enjoy working in a hotel.
Julia, who’d been covering most of Abigail’s shifts during her reprieve, wasn’t letting any grass grow under her feet. She’d been working the bar scene ever since her disastrous evening with Shane, and had even managed to score herself a couple of dates. Abigail just didn’t know how her friend did it. Julia hadn’t found anyone special yet, but she was never without a nightlife, at least so much of a nightlife as someone could have in North Conway.
As for Abigail herself, she’d managed to learn several things she hadn’t known about her father’s murder. Mark Becker had murdered her father’s witness, and apparently he and Shane Dempsey had been working together to cover up the same series of crimes. Shane had told Julia that he was from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and a round of internet research had proven that so was Mark. What she and Julia read online indicated that neither of the men had been in North Conway for long, prior to coming to work at the Washington Valley Hotel. Considering the fast happening of events, the time between Christopher Barrow’s murder and the present, Abigail had to assume that the network of crimes the hotel managers were working to cover up had originated down south. Assuming this was true, and Mark or Shane hadn’t been the one to murder her father, the killer was still probably from Baton Rouge. And apparently he or she had been after another target, someone else that they were supposed to be shooting when her father saw him or her. If this statement wasn’t merely a lie to cover his own sins, then Mark Becker had admitted this much from his own mouth.
Another enormous online discovery Julia made had shed light on the fact that Mark and Shane jumpstarted some sort of business venture with two other men when they were just out of college. One of those men, whom Abigail was willing to bet was somehow the leader, had worked overtime to conceal his own identity, as there wasn’t a single mention of him anywhere on the internet. The fourth man, Brent Lombardi, had apparently been in North Conway years before Mark and Shane. And low and behold, he had worked at the Red Fox Hotel. Lombardi was long gone now, but he’d worked for the hotel for over seven years, meaning, he’d been in North Conway when Abigail’s father was shot.
Abigail had no proof whatsoever that Brent Lombardi had murdered her father. It was a hunch, and as far as she was concerned, her hunch would have to be enough. In trying to learn the truth, she had almost died herself, and even though she would take a bullet for her dad, she couldn’t bring him back. The authorities had assured her that they knew the true nature of Mark and Shane’s crimes, and that was a lot more than she’d had before she’d come there. If she was meant to know more, then someday she would.
Learning the truth about the way Ryan felt about his late sister, Abigail had realized that the two of them were more alike than she’d ever known. It would surely kill her, but even though Ryan chose not to be with her in the way she would have liked, she wanted to find a way to be there for him, to help him to forgive himself for his sister’s death. And she would.
Julia, who’d swept her long red hair into a ponytail today, approached the front desk carrying a small stack of papers. Plopping them down in front of Abigail, she said, “Looks like the resumes are already pouring in.”
“Resumes?” Abigail questioned.
“Didn’t you hear? Kimberly Russell quit. She snagged a receptionist position over at Memorial Hospital. Personally I would have given the woman an intelligence test instead of an interview. But, hey, not my funeral.”
Abigail was stunned. Kimberly had had her claws in Ryan for longer than she’d known him. She was surprised that she was giving up so easily. Of course, Kim was no longer the same woman she’d been when Abigail met her. Kim had come to her aid the day she’d been kidnapped. And she seemed genuinely sorry for the things she’d said and done. Maybe that hug between her and Ryan by the car had been a good-bye hug. Maybe it changed everything.
Only it didn’t change everything, Abigail assured herself as she attempted to fit too many paperclips into a mug. There was a whole variety of reasons why she and Ryan couldn’t be together. All of them lied with Ryan.
Opening the mail, she spread a variety of catalogs and envelopes across the counter, barely hearing the front door open. As a shadow glazed over the envelopes, she looked up, expecting to find a customer. Seeing who it actually was, her eyes widened. Her limbs froze and her knees turned to tapioca pudding.
What was he doing there? Yes, Ryan worked there—he was the front desk supervisor for God’s sake. But the schedule had said that he was off today. Damn her for not checking it twice.
Ryan smiled that handsome smile that had robbed her of breath the day he came into the ice cream parlor. Like a fox hunting a rabbit, he seemed intent on keeping his eyes on her, his sexy gaze threatening to melt the clothes right off her body.
“Abigail MacKenzie.” He laid his large hands on the desk.
Her insides shook. “That’s my name.”
Ryan remained in place as one of the guests, a middle-aged gentleman, got behind him. As though he had eyes in the back of his head, Ryan looked briefly over his shoulder and said, “She’ll be with you in just a moment.”
He turned back to her. “You look good. Better than good, I mean, the ordeal you went through was positively traumatic. But you seem to be back to your typical, spunky self.” When she shot him a sarcastic look, he asked, “How are you feeling?”
“Better,” Abigail said, attempting to make it look as though she was straightening up the reception area.
“I’m glad to hear it,” Ryan said as he leaned into her. “But I’m not sure I believe it’s the truth.”
“What the—of course it’s the truth. I’m working, aren’t I? What more proof do you need than that that I’m well?”
“I didn’t mean to imply that you were lying. I don’t mean half the things that come out of my mouth, but dammit Abigail, you drive me so crazy sometimes that I can hardly think straight.”
“So you’re saying that I drive you out of your mind?” Stepping out from behind the front desk, Abigail said, “Well congratulations, Mr. Newberry, on making the discovery of the century. As if I didn’t already know the way you feel about me, as if you don’t make it abundantly clear every time you take a breath, you’ve finally succeeded in getting me so upset that I’ve let everyone else know, too!” Ignoring the fact that several of the hotel guests were staring at them, Abigail went on. “Don�
�t act like you care about me when you and I both know that the only thing you care about is not being caught in the act.” Gesturing to the crowd, she said, “Guess it’s a little late for that now, isn’t it?”
Abigail stormed through the lobby. She pushed past everyone there and grabbed the handle to the back door as Ryan’s voice projected through the room.
“Abigail, wait,” he said over everyone there.
Abigail turned around. Ryan was holding the phone, speaking into the loudspeaker. Everyone there, the mob of guests, along with Julia and Sheldon, had stopped what they were doing. All eyes were on him.
“I know you’re stubborn,” Ryan said. “In fact, you’re the only person I know who’s as stubborn as I am. It’s one of the reasons I think we’re so perfect for each other.” He put down the phone. The crowd parted and he weaved through it, saying, “When I’m finished, you can leave, if that’s what you want. But I’m not letting you walk out of this room until you’ve heard what I have to say.”
The words “how dare you” were right on the tip of Abigail’s tongue. But as twenty or so sets of eyes were fixed on her, she decided to fight her better instincts.
“All right,” she said, “I’m listening.”
“Good.” Ryan smiled. “The day you went missing, when I didn’t know where you were, my heart stopped. It literally stopped, Abigail, because the thought of what might have happened to you was so terrifying to me that I was literally paralyzed.”
“Ryan, don’t do this. I understand now why you were afraid.” She said so that only he could hear, “It reminded you of the night when your sister—”
“No,” he said firmly.
“No?”
“I mean, yes, of course it reminded me of Rachel’s accident. But that isn’t why I was afraid. I’d just realized for the second time in my life that I might lose someone”—he looked into her eyes—“that I love very much.”
Abigail’s heart leapt in her chest. She swallowed, two enormous tears blurring her vision. “Like your sister?”
Dangerous Secret [The Pinnacles of Power Prequel] (BookStrand Publishing Romance) Page 26